Visiting the Cambria Christmas Market? 3 Things You Need to Know Before You Go
Cambria has all sorts of fun activities from walking the boardwalk of Moonstone Beach, eating excellent food, and looking for wildlife. During the Christmas season however, a new attraction comes to town - the Cambria Christmas Market!
The Spot
The Cambria Christmas Market is a spectacular display of lights showcasing various Christmas types of celebrations from across the world.
A multitude of vendors ascend upon the grounds of the Cambria Pines Lodge and the Cambria Nursery. You will find live music, all types of various food and drinks (hot buttered rum yum!), unique Christmas souvenirs, toys, beef jerky, and much more!
While the food options and unique vendors are great, the main attraction here are the lights!
We’ve listed a few of our favorites below, but you need to come here to truly appreciate how awesome this spectacle is.
The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California
Unique art work of an assault rifle
Surfing Santa!
A classic nativity scene of the birth of Jesus Christ
Logistics
Tickets range from $15-25 dollars and an upcharge of $10 is added if you buy them at the door.
Going midweek will help avoid some of the crowd, but they sell out almost every night so there will be lots of people.
Parking is another key item to pay attention to. They have an ADA lot and VIP parking you can buy for $25, but it’s fun to get a drink here so just take the shuttle and drive responsibly.
Here are the parking locations:
Coast Union High School 2950 Santa Rosa Creek Rd
Public Parking, East Village (Shuttle Pickup at Burton Dr. and Center St.)
Public Parking, West Village (Shuttle Pickup at Main St. and Arlington St.)
Make sure to review their parking page to ensure you are standing in the right location and that you head back to the shuttle station where you were picked up at.
While the free complementary shuttles run continuously, it’s best not finishing your evening riding around on a bus trying to get back to the correct shuttle stop.
Things We Wish We Knew Beforehand
Arrive as close to sunset as possible to avoid the crowds as much as possible or just show up around 5PM when the gates open
Follow their parking rules and confirm you are on the correct shuttle heading back to where you parked your car
There are tons of vendors scattered around, don’t spend all your $ on the first things you see as there are lots of other options (eg. food) that you might just wish you had bought instead
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Kirk + Martina have been adventure travelling essentially their whole lives. Martina has been to over 60 countries, speaks 3 languages, and is a badass. Kirk enjoys pushing limits to their extreme, hence the love for action sports and anything dangerous / adrenaline filled fun.
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